Aerojet Rocketdyne Takes Loss on AJ-26
Engine Problems (Source: Space News)
The parent company of Aerojet Rocketdyne announced Oct. 10 that it took
a $17.5 million loss in its latest fiscal quarter because of issues
with the AJ-26 rocket engine that it provides for Orbital Sciences
Corp.’s Antares launch vehicle. GenCorp Inc. reported a net loss in the
company’s fiscal third quarter, which ended Aug. 31, of $9.5 million.

The company also reported a net loss for the year to date of $61.8
million. GenCorp singled out the AJ-26 engine, a refurbished version of
the Soviet-era NK-33, as a major reason for the loss. The company said
it took pre-tax contract loss of $17.5 million on the program in the
latest quarter, and $31.4 million loss on the program for the year to
date. (10/13)

Private Space Habitat to Blow Up on
ISS Next Year (Source: IEEE Spectrum)
Until someone manages to figure out how to get a space elevator up and
running, sending stuff into space is going to remain enormously
expensive. Payloads are also limited by size: if it doesn’t fit inside
a rocket, it’s not going to make it into orbit. This places significant
restrictions on large space structures like the International Space
Station, which have to be made up of lots of tiny little modules stuck
together, meaning that you don’t have access to a lot of open space.

Fifty years ago, NASA experimented with launching inflatable spacecraft
that could be carried into space wadded up inside small rockets, and
then pumped up to enormous sizes once they reached orbit. It was a
fantastic idea that was in the running for a habitat on the ISS until
funding for it was axed by the U.S. Congress. But Bigelow Aerospace has
taken up the idea, and reconfirmed its plan to test an inflatable
module on the ISS in 2015.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) will fly up to the ISS
inside the unpressurized trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule
sometime next year. The station’s Canadarm2 will attach the BEAM to an
airlock on the Tranquility module, where it will be slowly inflated.
The BEAM has an internal volume of about 16 cubic meters, which is just
enough room for one astronaut to comfortably do a mostly stationary
acrobatic routine, and it’s scheduled to remain attached to the ISS for
two full years. (10/14)

India’s Impressive Space Program
(Source: The Diplomat)
India recently made history, when its Mars Orbiter Mission successfully
entered the Martian orbit. In doing so, it became the first country to
enter Mars’ orbit on its first attempt and also the first Asian country
to reach the red planet. Missions to Mars have rarely been successful.
Before India’s Mangalyaan (Sanskrit for Mars-craft), only the United
States, the Soviet Union, and Europe had entered Mars orbit. India is
part of an elite club.

What makes India’s Mars mission all the more remarkable is its low
cost. With a price tag of just $70 million, it is the least expensive
inter-planetary mission ever. The U.S. Maven orbiter, which arrived at
Mars two days before Mangalyaan, cost NASA a whopping $671 million in
comparison. Experts have pointed out that the enormous cost difference
between Mangalyaan and Maven is because the Indian Mars-craft is far
simpler than Maven. “They’ve kept it small,” Andrew Coates, who will be
a principal investigator on Europe’s Mars rover in 2018, said of the
Indian Mars mission. (10/13)

New Horizons' Reach Could Extend Past
Pluto (Source: Space.com)
NASA researchers could get a peek past Pluto if the New Horizons
probe's mission gets extended and the spacecraft explores even smaller
objects than the dwarf planet. "These are objects that are much smaller
than Pluto, and probably much more primitive in terms of their
chemistry and their appearance," said New Horizons principal
investigator Alan Stern. "These are objects the size of counties, for
example, not the size of planets. They're very faint." (10/13)

'Astronaut Wives Club' Begins Filming
for 2015 Launch on ABC (Source: Collect Space)
The first meeting of the Astronaut Wives Club — the
made-for-TV-version, that is — has convened in New Orleans. Filming
began Thursday (Oct. 9) on the 10-episode series, which ABC plans to
air next spring. "The Astronaut Wives Club" is based on author Lily
Koppel's best-selling book by the same title, which tells the real
story of the women who stood beside the United States' first spacemen.
(10/13)

The Spaceman of Afghanistan
(Source: Guardian)
The Spaceman of Afghanistan is the uplifting story of Abdul Ahad Momand
who on 29 August 1988 became the first – and so far only – Afghan to
journey into space. He was a beneficiary of the Russians’ desire to
keep hold of Afghanistan as an ally when unrest in the country
increased their vulnerability to the US. He entered their cosmonaut
programme and spent a week in the Mir space station helping to map the
uncharted regions of his country and note geological features that
would help his people predict earthquakes. Click here.
(10/14)

GPS Modernization Continues with Quick
Pace of Launches (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
A new satellite launched Aug. 1 has joined the U.S. Air Force's GPS
navigation network to help guide everything from bombs to road trippers
to their destinations, with final preparations on track to send up
another GPS spacecraft at the end of October. It was the seventh of 12
Boeing-built GPS 2F-series satellites to launch. The rest of the GPS 2F
spacecraft, which have been manufactured and are in storage at Boeing's
satellite factory in El Segundo, Calif., are due to launch by mid-2016.
(10/14)

Space Debris Fell From The Sky Nearly
Killing Two People (Source: MY9NJ)
Workers at the Water Treatment Plant in Secaucus, New Jersey, were
startled when an object fell from the sky and nearly struck them.
Operations Foreman Steve Bronowich said the falling piece of debris
nearly hit and killed two of his employees. “They said like, what the
heck is that, they haven't ever seen anything like that, it made a loud
noise and then bounced,” Bronowich said.

After some research online, the crew at the plant came to the
conclusion that the falling debris was a heat tile from a space
shuttle. “It was a white tile, it had three layers, there was ceramic,
then a piece of metal, and then some kind of a rubber underneath it,
and it was brown because it looked like it was burnt,” Bronowich
described. NASA issued a statement and said it is unlikely that the
object is from a space shuttle, since one hasn't been flown since 2011.
Editor's Note:
Maybe this is a reason that the military X-37B is returning to Earth
this week. (10/14)

Space Concordia Rub Shoulders with the
Astronautical Elite (Source: Concordia University)
Extra-planetary travel. Hurtling through space. Next-generation
satellites. These are abstract concepts for most of us mere mortals.
Then there's Space Concordia, the award-winning student association
that builds satellites and imagines the future of space travel and
exploration. This year, for the first time, Space Concordia was invited
to present at the International Astronautical Congress, held in
Toronto. (10/11)

Russian Luna-25 Mission to Cost
Billions (Source: Space Daily)
The Luna-25 exploration mission will cost tens of billions of rubles,
an official from Russian Federal Space Agency said Friday. "Let's say,
we are talking tens of billions of rubles because it's a resource-heavy
project, complex in terms of technical feasibility," Roscosmos'
strategic planning chief Yuri Makarov said at a press conference in
Moscow. (10/14)

The United Arab Emirates Space Program
(Source: Space Safety)
There are dozens of emerging space nations around the world seeking to
capitalize on dramatic increases in space technology accessibility. We
take a look at one such nation, the United Arab Emirates, exploring the
opportunities and challenges they face on the road to achieving space
capability. Click here.
(10/13)

Greatest Long-Term Threat To Boeing Is
The Loss Of Talent (Source: Aviation Week)
Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) CEO Chris Chadwick termed
the company's moves out of Seattle as “necessary if we are going to
differentiate ourselves from competitors and stay ahead of a rapidly
changing global defense environment.” He is exactly right. The problem
is that Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is positioned very
differently from BDS, and yet corporate management is taking a
one-size-fits-all approach to labor relations. Click here.
(10/13)

SpaceX's Lower Cost Defies Boeing's
Past (Source: Investors Business Daily)
If SpaceX delivers on its plan to send astronauts into space for nearly
40% less than Boeing can, NASA could reap even bigger cost savings as
the upstart company challenges decades-old practices in the industry.
Under the contracts announced last month, Boeing (BA) could get up to
$4.2 billion to ferry passengers to the International Space Station
(ISS), while SpaceX will get up to $2.6 billion for the same
requirements.

While NASA is looking to reduce costs, the rejection of Sierra Nevada's
cheaper bid and the inclusion of Boeing's pricier one also points to
the space agency's other priority: reliability. Boeing has worked with
NASA since the dawn of the space age and has a proven track record that
allowed it to command a higher sum. Its Apollo command module put Neil
Armstrong on the moon. But Boeing's history may be weighing on its
costs.

"Boeing's cost structure is higher than SpaceX — that's just a fact,"
said Marco Caceres, senior space analyst at the Teal Group. Because the
aerospace giant has been around longer, it most likely has an older,
more experienced workforce with higher wages and labor costs, he added.
SpaceX is a vertically integrated company, building all of its parts
in-house, with no subcontractors. Boeing employs numerous
subcontractors to build components, which adds to costs. (10/13)

Profile: Thomas Markusic of Firefly
Space Systems (Source: Space News)
Firefly Space Systems is part of a new wave of launch services startups
looking to capitalize on a small-satellite boom fueled, at least in
part, by a combination of advances in microelectronics technology and
Silicon Valley investment capital. The company’s founder, Tom Markusic,
believes the boom is still in its early stages and envisions the day
when companies like Google fulfill long-articulated but unrealized
visions of darkening the skies with satellites. Cheap access to space
will help make that vision a reality, he says.

"Flights will start happening probably in the 2016 time frame. There
are places like Spaceport America in New Mexico, or Midland, Texas,
with pretty low costs and regulations where we could do suborbital
checkout flights. And for those flights we’ll be looking for more
funding from venture capitalists and institutional investors. Then
beyond the suborbital flights there will have to be another series of
investment for the first orbital flights."

Which launch sites are you considering for revenue-generating
commercial launches? "I think the northern launch sites like Kodiak,
Alaska, are attractive to us. We hired a veteran SpaceX launch guy,
Bradley Obrocto, who had worked at SpaceX since 2008 at places like
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, Florida, the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific — everywhere,
really. His first task will be to go out and look and see where we can
get the best deal." (10/13)

NASA Braces For Comet's Close
Encounter With Mars (Source: Huffington Post)
A comet will give Mars a close shave on Sunday, Oct. 19, and NASA isn't
taking any chances. Comet C/2013 A1, or 'Siding Spring,' is expected to
come within 87,000 miles of the red planet, making its closet approach
around 2:27 p.m. EDT. To keep debris from the comet's long trail from
hitting the three NASA spacecraft now in orbit around Mars, the space
agency has adjusted their positions so that they'll be on the planet's
far side when the comet approaches.

"We're going to hide behind Mars," Rob Lock, the orbiter studies lead
for the Mars program office, says in the video above. "So, kind of like
diving under your desk--there's an earthquake and flying glass
around--it's exactly the same sort of thing. We're not going to take
any chances." The Sliding Spring flyby will also give NASA its
first-ever close-up look at a comet from the Oort Cloud, a spherical
"cloud" of icy objects in the solar system's outer reaches. The space
agency hopes that by studying the comet's trajectory, scientists will
gain a better understanding of comets that whiz close to Earth. (10/13)

The Incredible, Expendable Mars Mission
(Source: Space Review)
Five years ago, NASA published its latest detailed architecture for
human missions to Mars. John Strickland explores that architecture and
discusses several ways it could be improved to make it more robust and
less expensive. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2618/1
to view the article. (10/13)

Canadian Space at a Crossroads
(Source: Space Review)
Two weeks ago, Canada hosted the global space community at the
International Astronautical Congress in Toronto. Jeff Foust examines
how that conference, which sought to play up Canada's unique
capabilities in space, also raised questions about the country's
long-term future in areas like human spaceflight and planetary
exploration. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2617/1
to view the article. (10/13)

Women of Space (Source: Space
Review)
A documentary airing on PBS this week examines the history of women in
America's space program. Dwayne Day reviews the show and examines both
the issues it covers and topics he wished it included. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2616/1
to view the article. (10/13)

The Role of International Cooperation
in China's Space Station Plans (Source: Space Review)
China's human spaceflight program has, to date, been an independent
pursuit, with little interest in cooperation with, let alone dependence
on, other nations. Jeff Foust reports that view may be changing with
China's plans to develop its own space station. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2615/1
to view the article. (10/13)

A Second Look: Safe Is Not An Option
(Source: Space Review)
A book published earlier this year offered an alternative, and at time
provocative, examination of the issues of risk in spaceflight. Michael
Fodroci offers a different perspective on the issues the book raises
from his experience working safety and mission assurance issues at
NASA. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2614/1
to view the article. (10/13)

Smith to Bolden: Why Not Orion for
Commercial Crew? (Source: Space News)
House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) wants to know when
NASA’s Orion deep-space capsule will be ready to provide backup crew
and cargo delivery services to the international space station and
whether the Lockheed Martin-built vehicle should replace one of the two
commercial crew taxis NASA is now funding. “If Orion could provide a
redundant capability as a fallback for the commercial crew partners,
why is it necessary to carry two partners to ensure competition in the
constrained budget environment?” Smith asked NASA Administrator Charles
Bolden in an Oct. 7 letter co-signed by Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS),
chairman of the House Science space subcommittee. (10/12)

No Romance on Mars: Sex and Romance in
a Mission to the Red Planet (Source: Space Safety)
Imagine the following scenario. The first batch of Martian colonists
has settled on Mars. There are only ten of them currently residing on
the Red Planet, both men and women, living together in a confined
station only a few meters across. They see each other first thing in
the morning, they share their meals, they work together, they have only
each other to talk to and spend their free time with. The contact is
incredibly close and intense – it’s no surprise that they soon start
feeling like much more than just co-workers, more like a family, as if
they have known each other for ages.

Add the pressure of the hostile alien environment and the notion that
anything can go wrong at any time making them dependent on each other
for their very lives, and you get an intensity of emotions that one
would hardly ever experience on Earth and that may bring about some
surprises even for these well trained, rational astronauts. At the end
of the day, they are not robots. One can’t blame them for having basic
human needs – like the occasional hug and, of course, sex (even though
NASA strictly prohibits that).

“The bottom line is that, like hunger and thirst, sex is a basic
biological motive,” Jason Kring, human factors researcher at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said in an interview with the
Sunday Telegraph in 2008. “The potential round-trip mission to Mars
could take three years. It doesn’t make sense to assume that these men
and women are going to have no thoughts of it for three years.” Kring
suggested a solution that he said was frequently used by polar
explorers: temporary relationships with colleagues that end with the
mission. Click here.
(10/7)

Editorial: Debris Cloud Gathers Over
Cubesat Party (Source: Space News)
A new and fast-growing contributor to hazardous clutter, particularly
in low Earth orbit, is cubesats that are literally being launched by
the dozen these days. Fueled by advances in microelectronics and in
many cases by Silicon Valley venture capital, the cubesat revolution is
dramatically expanding applications for space systems while toppling
the long-associated cost barriers.

A recent example of just how bad it is already is Europe’s Sentinel 1A
environment-monitoring satellite, which, after being left in a lower
than expected orbit, had to make eight collision avoidance maneuvers
during its climb to its operating orbit. The cubesat sector deserves
special attention, however, both because it is relatively new and thus
not as attuned to the problem as longtime players, and because it is
populating low Earth orbit at a dizzying rate.

According to another study presented at the conference, some 150
cubesats will be deployed during 2014 when all is said and done, a 63
percent increase over 2013, which saw a threefold increase over 2012.
Moreover, the number of conjunctions — or relatively close orbital
passes — involving cubesats is growing rapidly. In 2007, cubesats
accounted for just 1 percent of the total; for the first nine months of
2014, that percentage was up to 5. (10/13)

Cubesats May Hitchhike on Mission to
Europa (Source: Discovery)
As NASA steps up its plans for the Europa Clipper concept to visit the
icy Jupiter moon, JPL has asked for cubesat proposals from universities
that could complement the primary Clipper payload. As we have a mission
going to Europa, why not attach some cubesats for the ride? NASA has
outlined some key science objectives these axillary cubesats should be
able to carry out, including “reconnaissance for future landing sites,
gravity fields, magnetic fields, atmospheric and plume science, and
radiation measurements.” (10/13)

Lunar Volcanoes Suggest the Moon May
Still be Warm (Source: New Scientist)
The man in the moon may still have some fire in his belly. A new study
argues that magma erupted onto the lunar surface less than 100 million
years ago – nearly a billion years later than previously thought. If
confirmed, the finding suggests that radioactive elements may be
keeping the moon's innards toasty even today. (10/13)

Editorial: Keep ISS Alive!
(Source: Space News)
In the 1990s as a leader of the Space Frontier Foundation, I worked to
cancel what was then called Space Station Freedom. Announced in 1984 by
President Ronald Reagan, the original concept had been pitched at
around $8 billion. Based on what we saw happening to what might have
been a good idea, we were the only space organization to come out
against the project. We believed that if the president’s goal was to
open the frontier as stated, there were much better and lower-cost ways
to do so that were more directly evolvable and supportive than where it
seemed the station was going.

We were right. By the time construction stopped (notice I did not say
“completed” — as it never has been) NASA and its partners had
spent over $100 billion on what we now call the international space
station. Actually, the cost may be much higher, depending on whose
numbers you believe, and if they do or do not count the space shuttle
in the total. (Given that over 75 percent of all shuttle flights were
in some way in support of the station, we probably should.)

[Now] not only do I believe we must dramatically increase the maximum
use of the space station by any and all, it is my stand that it never,
ever under any circumstances should be brought back down to Earth —
period. The debate over the current use and future fate of ISS cuts
directly to the core of what we are going to do there. If space is a
government program, then throw it away and let’s try and raise the
money for the next one. If it is our intention to open space as a
frontier to the people of Earth, then it is hugely important that we
treat our first permanent outpost as a treasured resource, both
figuratively and literally. (10/13)

A Declaration of Space Jurisprudence
Interdependence (Source: Space News)
It is essential to have a driving, underlying philosophic construct
recognized and accepted globally for pursuing space activities in
support of humankind’s migration off-Earth. It also is critical for
space jurisprudents or philosophers — as well as space law
practitioners — to recognize the biochemical/biological underpinnings
directing the opportunity potential for space exploration and
migration, dispersal and settlement that are critical for the survival
of the human genome.

The motivating construct for implementing these opportunities —
individually and collectively, shared by all cultures, all societies
and all civilizations — is species and, ultimately, specieskind’s
survival. The substantive underpinnings of this approach relate
cultural institutions, such as “the law,” to the empirically premised
migratory dispersal and evolutionary principles of biochemistry and
biophysics underlying organic life and its evolution as it is presently
known and understood. (10/13)